Thursday, February 24

No really, this game is pure genius. You Don't Know Jack is a trivia game for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, and DS. The game has a wicked sense of humor, like the question "Which musician could NOT use his or her name as a Windows file name?" The game is voiced over by the host, Cookie Masterson, whose been in the series since the original.

Wait...this is a series? Yup, You Don't Know Jack is a series of trivia games that's been around since 1995. The series originally started on the PC., and released more than 10 games for the platform between it's inception and 2003. In addition, the series has seen two PlayStation 1 games, several internet-only games, and a short lived TV show. Yes, a trivia video game that spawned a TV show - that's how awesome this series is.

Most questions in the game are multiple choice, however this iteration has two other question types: Dis or Dat, and Jack Attack. Dis or Dat lists off seven names/things and you have to figure out whether it's option one or option two - and sometimes the third option of both. An example of this is whether the following is the name of a Pope or the name of a Britney Spears song, and unless you know a lot about Britney Spears or Popes this question is harder than it sounds. The other alternate question, Jack Attack, is always the final question of the game. The Jack Attack is a word association question. A clue is given to help you find the right answer. A word or name then shows up in the middle of the screen, and then a bunch of examples pass by. You have to buzz in when the right example shows up - you'll lose money if you buzz in on the wrong example.

The game can be played solo, or up to four players. The game is a blast in multi-player, even if you're just watching others play. It can also be played online (except the PC version for some reason.) Multi-player mode adds the screws, which you can use to screw your neighbor. Screwing your neighbor forces another player to answer a question in five seconds. If they get it wrong, you win the money they lose and vice versa if they get it right. Each player gets one screw a game. Also in multi-player, the losing player (player A) plays the Dis or Dat, although the others can attempt to steal money by guessing the correct answer before player A guesses wrong. Also in multiplayer, once someone guesses the Jack Attack example correctly, the game moves onto the next example and the others do not get the money.

The game is organized into episodes with set questions. The game has over 70 episodes -10 questions + a Jack Attack each - built in and there are more DLC episodes if you get bored. The game is only $30 new, and I think that's more than worth it for 70 episodes.

To sum it all up, You Don't Know Jack is well worth trying out. It's loaded with cleaver questions filled with entertainingly useless information and witty humour.

Thursday, February 17

North is a terrible movie with a nonsense plot, incredibly insulting stereotypes, jokes that fail harder than the flat earth society, and contains so much stupid that I had to cut this review in half due to time constraints. With that said, let's kick off round 2! For part 1, click here.

Where did we leave off? Oh right, North travels North to Alaska.

Graham Greene is North's Alaskan parent, and we see him opening his igloo's machine door with a garage door opener. He is a Native American though, so playing him as an Alaskan isn't racially insensitive. At least they didn't cast a European descendant like Kathy Bates as North's Alaskan mother...sorry, they did - spoke too soon!

Anyway, this family seems nice enough so far. North is sitting inside an igloo with Greene and Bates. Greene opens a hole in the floor to reveal that he can go ice fishing inside his own home. As luxurious as that sounds, that ice is way too thin to possibly support the weight of the furniture in this house. Who says movies have to obey the laws of physics?

Greene starts whistling some tune that sounds familiar, but I honestly couldn't tell you what it's called. North and his Alaskan mother soon join in and everyone starts tapping their feet. What's the point of this? Nothing is being said, their all just whistling and tapping their feet. Also the entire floor moves when they tap their feet, furthering my argument that this ice is way too thin to possibly support their weight.

Thursday, February 10

I’m taking a break from all the older, more obscure movies I’ve been reviewing lately and I’m reviewing something more recent and mainstream, a movie called North, released in 1994.

North was directed by Rob Reiner. Reiner is a well known director for such movies as “When Harry Met Sally”, “A Few Good Men”, “The Princess Bride”, and “Stand By Me”. All of those movies were well received and Reiner is a fully capable director. Sure, he’ll mess up every now and then like with “Rumor Has It…”, but North can’t be one of his bad movies, right?

North stars Elijah Wood at the age of 13, and he was a good actor back then (had a major role in the movie “Avalon”, which received numerous Academy Award nominations.) He’s still a good actor, but that’s beside the point. North also features Bruce Willis, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dan Aykroyd, Jon Lovitz, and an appearance from a young Scarlett Johansson. With all that star power surely this movie should be good right? Right?

Yup, Activision is no longer making Guitar Hero, or it's sub-games like DJ hero. The official story is that interest in the music genre is declining and Guitar Hero is no longer profitable, so their just going to focus on Call of Duty instead. Of course the real reason why Guitar Hero isn't profitable anymore is because Rock Band is simply better, and they only release one Rock Band game a year. Anyway, DLC will no longer be sold by the end of February.

Maybe Activision is learning, or since they still have faith in the Tony Hawk franchise after Shred failed so hard they need more hard lessons. Will Call of Duty be next? Only time will tell. Anyway my next review should be up later tonight.

Saturday, February 5

Despite how Plan 9 from Outer Space is my favorite bad movie of all time, I’ve never seen another Ed Wood movie until now. Welcome to my review of Glen or Glenda, Ed Wood’s first full motion production and first acting job.

Glen or Glenda was originally supposed to be an exploitation film about Christine Jorgensen, the first person to ever undergo a sex-change operation. A Hollywood film producer named George Weiss wanted to make an exploitation film about this, but was turned down several times. Ed Wood eventually convinced Weiss that he was the man for the job because…Ed Wood liked to dress in women’s clothing. I’m not making this up; Ed Wood had a secret habit of wearing women’s clothing. His mother used to dress him up as a girl since she wanted a girl, and all throughout his life, Ed Wood found comfort in continuing this habit. Anyway, he ended up making a film about transvestites instead of Jorgensen’s sex change, as a plea for acceptance. What follows is probably the most bizarre movie I’ve talked about on this blog yet, and that includes Turkish Star Wars.

Thursday, February 3

I'm working on my next review, but it's not ready yet. I've been down with a cold over the last week, and I also have several assignments to work on as well. One of them is, unfortunately, that I have to go to a hockey game. I know, it sucks right? Actually I'm looking forward to writing a sports article for school...and the game since I don't often go to sporting events. Anyway, my next review will be posted here whenever it's ready. In the mean time, click on the link below to see how awesome EA can be to their fans.